Like many states grappling with record-breaking budget deficits, Arizona has had to cut back on its health care and social services. What makes Arizona unique is the extent it has gone to save money — by restricting coverage of certain transplant procedures, arguing that they are optional or palliative. Yet the cuts are putting vulnerable Arizonans at risk of dying without the money to pay for procedures that may save their lives.

Gov. Jan Brewer has insisted repeatedly during the past year that the Legislature has the authority to cut spending for Arizona’s Medicaid program below the level that voters thought they had locked 10 years ago. But she appears to have shifted strategy and is planning instead to ask voters to approve the cuts in a special election.

A Phoenix man who was denied state Medicaid coverage for a bone marrow transplant has died, a development that renewed debate over health care budget cuts, though one of Mark Price's doctors said the death was not caused by the financial situation.